The man responsible for Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough and the moonwalk has been dead for quite some time now as far as I’m concerned, but now he’s actually gone. RIP — your impact was mighty, no matter how freakish the aftermath may have become.
I hope everyone is enjoying the feats of strength and bearing of grievances this morning…
I grew up being read bible stories, so I am familiar with the names and characters. I think our picture bible was set in 1975 America — a bunch of white guys with beards and sandals. Anyway, I recall Shadrak, Mishak and Abednigo from the stories, so “Shadrak, Mishak and a bad negro” was particularly amusing.
Smooth spoken word over groovy new wave. Merry xmas, ya’ll.
Gary Numan vs. Jemini - Jesus was a B-Boy (Ben Mono’s Holy Rerub)
Aww yeah. JBL just came out with their new Eon model, so I picked up these 15P-1’s for like half price since Guitar Center is looking make room for the new ones. Been looking to add a PA and complete the mobile setup, and these bad boys are both more powerful and still in my price range. One more gig to recoup for these, then it’s subwoofer time. Then look out.
Note the beer for context. That is a tallboy, my friends — dwarfed by the 15″ers. Can’t wait to play the new-ish (I’ve been busy) Tiga leak on them.
Looks like this northern migration will be more than just a temporary stint of part-time work and full-time baked goods — I’ve been admitted to the class of 2011 at the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington!
Foster has been my clear favorite from the beginning of this process, and I just felt the “click” unlike any of the other programs that I’ve been considering. It was also a bonus last night to see that Businessweek has published its Top 30 rankings for 2008, in which Foster made its first appearance at #27!
So upon receiving the good news, the sad news is that I will not be venturing back down to my homies in the Bay or LA. I set out on this crazy plan in pursuit of the next chapter though, and I think I’ve found it.
Out of Controller will soon be Out of Date, need to think of a new ridiculous DJ name…
MSTRKRFT - She’s Good for Business School
EPMD - Strictly Business School
I’ve had the old Chemical Brothers track, Galvanize, stuck in my head for days (which has been just fine since it has the most rockin’ bollywood strings riff ever), and I just clicked ’submit’ on the first b-school application. One down, two to go. Feeling very good about it — one step closer to being DJ CFO for real.
I’ll get another BT and some mixes going soon before I’m back to spending every waking second editing essays for the next submission deadline. There have been a bunch of great tracks floating around lately that I’ve been wanting to share, including a slew of sweet new Mr. Oizo tunes…
Out of Controller is one year old today!
Has been a fun year since podcast #1; learning html, tweaking graphics and evolving content. At first I thought I would only use the space to upload mixes, but I slowly started writing about shows, sharing tracks and otherwise posting about what matters to me most: music.
Year two should be even more exciting, as I plan to add a social networking component, remix contests and t-shirt giveaways. Not likely. I want to keep the focus just as narrow as ever on good music. Not new or popular, necessarily, but what I consider good. If you come to this blog regularly, then you probably agree with me on what “good music” means. I do hope to vary the podcasts more now that I have soooo much good stuff to pull from and I’m figuring out all the potential of a DAW limited only by the sky.
Keep on truckin’.
After thinking about it for months, reading review after review and generally not being ready to make the jump away from the trusty technics, I picked up an Xponent yesterday. Guitar Center has a 14-day no questions asked returned policy, so I figured I might as well play with it for bit — if for no other reason than to put the issue to rest and stop reading about it all the goddamned time.
I have resisted CDJs for years out a love for both vinyl itself as well as the smooth tactile feel that a jogwheel simply cannot recreate. Not to mention that I learned on decks years ago and couldn’t image DJing without them… But after using Torq for a while (over a year already now), I began to realize that the turntable had been reduced to a simple timecode-reader. No audio was even getting pulled off the record in this system, and I was using the MIDI-mapped functionality of the Trigger Fingers far more as soon as I got things beatmatched.
So since I was manipulating tracks digitally in ways not possible before alone, perhaps I was ready to try spinning without the comfortable muscle memory of the turntables. Plus, I was ga-ga over this new controller when I first saw it.
Let me stop here for a moment and address the analogue vs. digital debate that I am soooo tired of reading about on the forums. Yes, hitting a sync button (I can’t quite bring myself to really do it) rather than matching beats by ear is easier and requires less skill, particularly if that is all one knows how to do. Yes, there are also magicians like Q-bert and Mixmaster Mike who play the turntable like an instrument.
But DJing is ultimately about playing and mixing music that the crowd can get down to, and beatmatching is a means to that end rather than an end unto itself. The fact that technological developments have made the basics of DJing easier do not take away from the fact that they have also made the nuances more versatile and exciting. I learned how and can do it the hard way, so I don’t feel guilty about taking shortcuts to focus on other elements of the mix. My $0.02 — and rationale to make the investment.
Well, this posted turned into more than just a “hey, look at my shiny new toy” snippet! I got so much resistance from my DJ buddies about the Xponent (my 8 year-old mixer is also crapping out on me, too. What to drop the cash on…) that I wanted to explicate my thinking behind it. To them and myself.
(Based on first impressions) I think this will be a cool, mobile addition to the arsenal, will make for easier digital recording and enable to me to play in far more places than I could while lugging the coffin around. Don’t worry, Mikes: the techs aren’t going anywhere, and I’ll pick up the Rane soon enough.
I’ve decided on a good direction for the Tracks element of the blog, over which I had been deliberating for months. Can I just post anything? Is there anything to worry about?? Well, it’s all promotional to spread the gospel of fat beats. Very well intentioned. You can now download any and all of the individual tracks from each podcast on the TC Tracks page. I made this an additional step because I would encourage peeps to listen to the mixes first, and then head over to the download page to get more of the songs that jumped out at them.
Another couple new features will be in place soon to get more music info out as well. One is a calendar page (still under construction–I find simple Wordpress plugins to be not so simple) which lists who all is playing around town, including upcoming Out of Controller gigs.
The other most informative yet most time-consuming element will be my attempt to post about sweet New Beats as I come across them in the blogosphere. A certain purveyor of zip files motivated me in this direction, and it hit me that not all of my friends think to troll the same blogs as I do, so re-posting items won’t be simply mindless regurgitation. Maybe a weekly findings update or something…
So pretty soon the Dance Party won’t ever stop. Shake well and buy often.
Just a note for posterity on the evolution of the particular sound that I’m trying to achieve in my mixes.
It has been an interesting process given the new direction that a lot of dance music seems to be heading; the easily defined genres of “trance” and “house” do not seem as applicable as new music (at least that I’m listening to) seems to incorporate elements of many different styles at once. When I started DJing years ago, I only wanted to spin progressive house. I would just listen for tracks that fit within that specific framework. Easy. Then Prodigy’s Dirtchamber Sessions turned my world upside down. Z-Trip and 2 Many DJs were also particularly influential for me with their multi-genre approach to music.
Electro and its return to synthesizers, vocals and actual bands rather than just Superstar DJs was my next tangential experience. Up to that point I had primarily been buying mix compilation cds, but now I started getting actual albums by Cut Copy, Goldfrapp, etc. There are also such strong parallels with 80s music that now I can throw in a Berlin or New Order track into the mix. Gotta love the 80s–so cheesy and fun.
I have also loved the emergence of “dance indie” or “disco punk” groups like LCD Soundsystem, The Rapture and Teddybears. I deviated from rock n’ roll when I hit college and was blown away by electronic music, so dance indie really brings things full circle for me. I can enjoy dance music and rock at the same time. A heavy four-four beat isn’t mandatory for dancing after all.
So set the current stage where it is a little more complicated than the simplicity of progressive house. Different people like different stuff, so by combining it all am I effectively reducing the number of people who like all of the above? Those have been the DJ influences from inside the headphones, but what about the influences coming from the dancefloor? I’ve never thought of myself as one to play to the crowd (Achilles heel), but that can’t be entirely true. Will have to ruminate on that further…